Books to Use With OnScreen Particle
Physics

Use the navigation menu to the left to find out more about OnScreen Particle Physics™ and to find other resources for teaching
and learning about modern physics.

The Charm of Strange Quarks (Thorough Introduction)

Michael Barnett, Henry Muehry, and Helen Quinn of Lawrence Berkeley Lab, the University of Basel, and
SLAC, respectively, have written a thorough introduction to the practice, methods, and excitement of particle physics research.
It should make an excellent companion to OnScreen Particle Physics, though it covers topics that are beyond the
simulations. While staying at the advanced high school level (vectors, algebra, but no calculus) it covers a lot of
ground, including the standard theory, detectors, accelerators, relativistic kinematics, experiment design, and much more.
Published by the American Institute of Physics (AIP) with Springer-Verlag, it is a must-have book for those wanting an
introduction at this level. Amazon has more info (you're not committing to order if you go there).

A Tour of the Subatomic Zoo (Introductory
Book)

Cindy Schwarz of Vassar College has written a very basic
introduction to particle physics suitable for high school or college use.
Published by the American Institute of Physics (AIP) and now in its
second edition, the Zoo briefly deals with just about all aspects of
particle physics that can be discussed at this level. It's a good place to start
if you're looking for a text or reference to accompany
OnScreen Particle Physics. It is nowhere near as comprehensive as The Charm of Strange Quarks, however.
Amazon has more info (you're not committing to order if you go there).

Robert N. Cahn and Gerson Goldhaber of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory of the University of California
have compiled a history of particle physics as told by the actual papers announcing the major particle discoveries from the neutron to the
W boson. Excellent introductions to the physics of detection and analysis and to the significance of the discoveries are
also provided for twelve different periods of discovery. Sadly, this Cambridge University Press book has gone out of print, but Amazon.com should have used copies. Definitely worth
looking for.

Spacetime Physics (freshman physics, minimal calculus)

When Edwin
Taylor and John Wheeler wrote the first edition of this book over thirty
years ago, they looked forward to "the day when the student of physics will
be as much at home with the geometry of spacetime as the student in an earlier
century was with Euclidean geometry." That day has not arrived, but Taylor
and Wheeler have certainly done more than their share to bring it closer.
Chapters 7 (Momenergy) and 8 (Collide. Create. Annihilate.) of the second
edition (1992) are of particular interest to anyone studying particle
interactions. Published by W.
H. Freeman & Co. Amazon.com (click below) has some online reviews.

Introduction to Experimental Particle Physics
(Graduate Level)

While the OnScreen Particle Physics
simulations present a
generic particle detector, this book by Richard Fernow of Brookhaven National Lab
goes into detail about various types of real detectors and the electronics they utilize,
pointing out the tradeoffs involved in the choice of detector. The book
contains a manageable amount of material on the basic
physics of particle measurement processes and the generating, accelerating,
and storing of
particle beams. Published by Cambridge University Press.

Q is for Quantum: An Encyclopedia of Particle Physics (Undergraduate up)

John Gribbin has written a very inclusive encyclopedia: particles, concepts, methods, and physicists are covered,
and the physics can be trusted. Not a book to read through A to Z, but to dip into and let one article lead to another. Published by Free Press.

A Modern Introduction to
Mechanics (Calculus-Based Book)

Jonathan Reichert of The State
University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo has written a unique freshman Mechanics
book. His thesis (which we strongly adhere to) is that conservation laws are
fundamental and that particle physics event analysis represents a natural
introduction to these laws. (Note that OnScreen Particle Physics provides you with an
"infinite" number of simple particle decay events and the on-screen
tools to analyze them.) Relativistic kinematics, which requires no
calculus, is brought in as a necessary tool. Roughly the first third of the book
is devoted to particle physics. The switch to more mundane topics, where
standard calculus-based Newtonian mechanics is introduced, may seem a little
abrupt, but anyone wanting a modern approach to mechanics or a reference for
modern physics should investigate this book.